The Future of Consumerist

Over the last twelve years, Consumerist has been a steadfast proponent and voice on behalf of consumers, from exposing shady practices by secretive cable companies to pushing for action against dodgy payday lenders. Now, we’re joining forces with Consumer Reports, our parent organization, to cultivate the next generation of consumer advocacy.

Stay tuned as Consumerist’s current and future content finds its home as a part of the Consumer Reports brand. In the meantime, you can access existing Consumerist content below, and we encourage you to visit Consumer Reports to read the latest consumer news.

We did our sit-down with Nightline tonight. It was fun. Among the many questions they asked, two stuck out in particular.

Vicky Mabrey asked us what we thought about the Sleepy Comcast Guy and John losing their jobs. We told her that we thought it was great, they should have been fired. But John was just doing his job, Vicky said. No one should be paid to humiliate and manipulate another person, we responded. But John was just trying to make his six bucks (the supposed fee retention consultants get for every member they save), she said. Sure, we said, and we can go around the corner and make six bucks off selling a rock of crack, but that doesn’t make it a good job to be doing.

We were also asked if we thought it was fair that one consumer could complain and cause so much damage. Fair? It’s beyond fair, we said. It’s the definition of fairness. We wish we had added that it’s more than fair, it’s justice. Might not making right. Holding an entity accountable for its actions. It’s called the freedom of speech, as well capitalism in fine fiddle.

We stumbled several times when they asked about the philosophy of The Consumerist. Philosophy? We’re just looking for material! Maybe in the post cranking, we haven’t taken the time to think on the matter. What do you think? What’s our raison d’etre? What do you get out of it all? This way, we’ll know better what to say next time…

Until then, the Nightline piece airs this Friday, July 14th at 11:35 PM ET on ABC. We smiled and cracked some jokes and got some good material in there. The piece is supposed to be pretty chunky, about 7-9 minutes long. Check your local listings.